I wondered if I could get some practical tips and suggestions.
I’ve finished chemo but it’s really damaged my nails. My finger nails have all lifted. Just this week, both my thumbnails became loose and ripped off right across the middle, exposing half of the nail beds! Eek!
It’s tender and super sensitive when things touch the exposed nail beds and things like doing up buttons, opening cans etc are pretty much impossible.
How have people coped? Putting a dressing on it, grit teeth and pray you won’t bump your finger on things while the nail grows back in about 6 months???
I’ve been using nail polish throughout chemo and after; daily nail oil and now polybalm.
Welcome to the forum @scherzo1 . I haven’t had this issue but I’m sure other forum users have and hopefully will be along soon with some helpful advice .Best wishes Jill
Hi
Sorry to hear you are going through this. I did have most of my finger nails lift following chemo and i just held them down using micropore tape and the nails kept on growing so kept clipping them as short as was comfortable. I was lucky and didn’t have any exposure of the nail beds. I also lost some toenails but they were pushed off by new growth so no nail bed exposure there either. I would continue with the nail oil as that should speed up regrowth. I had used black nail polish throughout Chemo but stopped using all nail polish after chemo as I think the nail polish can stop the nail oil being fully absorbed. Hope that helps.
Hi
Sorry to hear. One of my big toenails was affected by chemo. I had a big ridge develop which I let grow out - it has taken over a year - I just kept cutting and filing until the new nail underneath pushed it up and it is nearly to the top now. It recently became too thick to cut myself as it was like a double thickness nail so saw a podiatrist last week who cut as much as she could and said just keep filing now til its gone. My fingernails (although always brittle) split a lot. GP just advised plenty of hand cream/wearing rubber gloves for cleaning and take Biotin daily. Too early to say if that is working as only been a couple of weeks. Good luck. x
Micropore tape–I must go get this! Thanks so much for your suggestions. I also used black nail polish during chemo and got bored of the colour at one point!
I hope the Biotin might make a difference for you. I’m also thinking of going to see a podiatrist if cutting them gets tricky. Did you find one yourself or referred from GP/nurse?
Hi When my toe nails dropped off, they were just like saucers and there was enough nail underneath for it not to be sore. that was the same for my ‘hand nails’. hwever over the last 2 years when they become brittle i’ve reverted to using a lotion i buy from Boots the chemist - if you live in the UK. I apply at night and it helps strengthen them. I’m just lazy and after a week forget to keep applying, but it does work as does eating pumpkin seeds for the zince. hope this helps. and just to say its part of the normal process of the body ridding poison from your system. lol Moonsox xxx
In case others have the same issue down the line, putting in a note on what I’ve been doing, thanks to all these suggestions:
I’ve had a few hospital appointments this past week so have taken the opportunity for the nurses to take a look at my nails.
It seems the thumb nails had come off before there was new nail growth underneath and too much of the nail beds exposed. They say there really isn’t much that can be done and covering it with dressing (but it a bit of air too) seems to be their recommendation.
There is new nail growing albeit slowly. And with it the nail beds are getting a bit less sensitive.
For my other lifted nails, I’m using poly balm /nail oil twice a day. I have 240/240 nail files which are soft enough to file nails short and easy to use, even if you don’t have good technique like me! I got a big batch of them so replace them every so often for hygiene. I’ve also started putting in breathable nail strengthn er. I wear gloves for cooking etc but getting them on can be a bit fiddly with the dressings. I try to keep my hands dry and clean. Hopefully no infections!
I use rubber gloves when doing the washing up or other heavy duty cleaning. I also started using disposable nitrile gloves for cooking when my nails started to lift and there was a wide gap between the nail bed and nails. I use them when I’m preparing raw meat or particularly muddy veg, kneading sticky stuff etc (I don’t feel good about the environmental aspect of disposable gloves but I haven’t managed to come across a good alternative!). When I have dressings on my fingers it does get difficult to pull the tight nitrile gloves on though.